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About Evans Donnell

Evans Donnell is the chief theater, film and opera critic as well as co-founder of ArtsNash. He wrote reviews and features about theater, opera and classical music for The Tennessean from 2002 to 2011. He was the theater, film and opera critic for ArtNowNashville.com from 2011 to 2012. Donnell has also contributed to The Sondheim Review, Back Stage, The City Paper (Nashville), the Nashville Banner, The (Bowling Green, Ky.) Daily News and several other publications since beginning his professional journalism career in 1985 with The Lebanon (Tenn.) Democrat. He was selected as a fellow for the 2004 National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and for National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) arts journalism institutes for theater and musical theater at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in 2006 and classical music and opera at the Columbia University School of Journalism in 2009. He has also been an actor (member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA), founding and running AthensSouth Theatre from 1996 to 2001 and appearing in Milos Forman's "The People vs Larry Flynt" among other credits. Donnell is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (www.americantheatrecritics.org).

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With awards season in full swing the Belcourt Theatre will soon present Oscar Picks. It’s an assortment of 2013 Academy Award-nominated films as well as selected Best Picture Winners from past years. Oscar Picks runs from Jan. 25-Feb. 23 and includes many of this year’s nominated films in various categories: Best Picture nominees Beasts of […]

Composers have spent much of history writing piano music for just one-half of the instrument. Zubin Kanga, a gifted London-based pianist, specializes in music that takes advantage of the whole piano. On Saturday afternoon, Kanga was at the Blair School of Music’s Choral Rehearsal Hall, performing a concert that explored the piano from the inside […]

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10 “For the wisdom of this […]

The Nashville Jewish Film Festival (NJFF) has an incredible lineup of films scheduled for today (Nov. 6) through Nov. 13 at the Belcourt Theater, The Franklin Theatre and the Gordon Jewish Community Center. The Festival, now in its 13th year, annually brings to Nashville and Middle Tennessee the most recent, entertaining and relevant films that illustrate Jewish […]

You might say Los Angeles-based performer Lexy Baeza has been preparing for years to play the title character in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical; at the age of eight she played Toto in a production of The Wizard of Oz and more recently was John Darling (as well as an understudy for the role […]

Nashville Children’s Theatre concludes its 81st season with a revival of the energetic romp that entertains all ages of kids and adults known as Go Dog. Go! The show runs April 11 through May 19. This innovative 2003 adaptation by the husband-and-wife writing team of Allison Gregory and Steven Dietz of P.D. Eastman’s beloved 1961 […]

Zeitgeist Gallery’s Indeterminacies new-music series will present one of its most adventurous shows yet on Sunday evening, when guitarist Denny Jiosa and composer Robert Bond perform via Skype with students in China. Bond came up with the idea after a recent conversation on Skype with his friend Fran Zinder, a former Nashville visual artist who […]

FRANKLIN, Tenn. – It’s understandable to think there are no surprises left in the oft-told classic A Christmas Carol. Studio Tenn’s transcendent take on this beloved tale happily proves that’s not true. The stage of the historic Franklin Theatre pulsates with 18 players weaving through, over, on and around a turntable-centered space (kudos to Peter Vaque […]

When it comes to planning the Nashville Ballet’s season, artistic director Paul Vasterling likes to say he has various “audience buckets” to fill. Some of his patrons prefer the sumptuousness of classical ballet, while others crave adventurous modern dance. Naturally, Vasterling wants to please everybody. Appealing to every taste would seem to be the main […]

FRANKLIN, Tenn. – The Bethlehem Players have kicked off their 2013 season with Neil Simon’s classic Barefoot in the Park. The show runs through March 16 at the Bethlehem United Methodist Church’s Performing Arts Center off Hillsboro Road. That center sports a new state-of-the-art lighting system and elevated seating. Set in New York City of another era […]

Until somebody finally invents a time machine, we’ll probably never know exactly what performances sounded like in Mozart’s day. That said, the recital that violinist Karen Clarke and friends gave Sunday night at Turner Hall provided some intriguing clues. Judging from the brisk way that Clarke, cellist Christopher Stenstrom and fortepianist Lillian Buss Pearson performed […]

FRANKLIN, Tenn. – Studio Tenn Theatre Company debuts a new Christmas production this year, combining the cherished nostalgia of an iconic screen classic with the magic and immediacy of live theater – It’s A Wonderful Life runs Dec. 4-21 at Jamison Hall in The Factory at Franklin. A first for Studio Tenn, this production replaces A […]

Ah, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro! What a fine shave you give when The Barber of Seville is in the hands of Nashville Opera. Gioachino Rossini’s 1816 opera buffa farce extraordinaire has elements even non-opera fans will recognize, particularly its overture (which among other humorous homages provided a certain Warner Bros. cartoon character with a very memorable vehicle) and […]

A Doll’s House by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen is a true classic. The tale of a Victorian household under secret siege, the play was one of the first to adopt dramatic realism. It was so shocking and divisive when released in 1879 that discussing the play was frowned upon in many circles. Today, it bears […]

Here it is Halloween night, but the wind and rain might be putting an end to the spooky celebrating before it even gets started – sorry, kids! The end of this month also marks the culmination of another Artober celebration for Nashville’s arts community and its audience. Just like last year, Artober 2013 ended with […]

It’s a little known fact in these parts, but “Count” Basie and Albert-George Schram were once amigos, bosom buddies, comrades in musical arms. “I used to work with Basie,” Schram matter-of-factly told the audience Thursday night at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. “That was a long time ago, before he was dead.” Schram, the Nashville Symphony […]

Few recent films have stirred up passions like the long-awaited movie version of the Les Misérables musical has. That’s not surprising given the show’s world-wide following – more than 60 million people in 43 countries have seen it on stage since 1985. Now Tom Hooper (Oscar-winning director of The King’s Speech) has helmed a star-studded […]

Ah, buddy movies – where barbs and bonding go together like chocolate and peanut butter. And when one clicks it’s worth going down to the movie theater for some chuckles and a knowing nod or two. Such is the case with Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz‘s Land Ho!, which opens today at Belcourt Theatre. This leisurely look at […]

STRATFORD, Ontario – Set amid the bucolic rolling hills of Southern Ontario, the small industrial town of Stratford would initially appear to be an unusual location for a theatrical tourist mecca that draws hundreds of play-going thousands each year from all over the world. However, for those with a deep and abiding love for William Shakespeare plays […]